Spread sheet software applications are generally used by many different users for storing, manipulating or displaying data. A typical spread sheet usually comprises a limited number of cells which are arranged in rows and columns. Each of the cells may contain specific data, such as values, functions, formulas, strings or other data.
Many well-known spread sheet application programs, such as Microsoft® Excel®, allow making user defined reports or so-called pivot-tables from the actual spread sheet data. For creating a report or pivot-table, respectively, any desired data of the spread sheet may be selected and displayed in a separate table. The data included in a report or pivot-table is usually also presented within individual cells which are arranged in rows and columns. Therefore, such a report or pivot-table is also referred to as a “spread sheet” within this application.
Data which is included in a single column of a spread sheet usually refers to one type of information, such as “task”, “cost”, “amount” or “effort”. If another category of information is to be added to a given spread sheet, an additional column has to created and arranged at a certain position of the spread sheet. As the number of lines and rows of a spread sheet grows with the complexity of a project, the corresponding spread sheet quickly becomes very large and confusing. For instance, if the cost of different tasks within a project is to be displayed in different currencies, such as USD, EUR or JPY, a separate column for each currency has to be provided in the spread sheet. Thereby, the dimensions of a spreadsheet may grow excessively which makes it difficult to locate and extract any desired information.